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CHINESE LANGUAGE SOFTWARE:

Richwin, Twinbridge and Chinese Star are the most commonly used. I personally use Chinese Star and think it抯 the best thing since sliced bread; essentially it is a "template" that can be turned on and used with all of your Windows based software. Pin Yin and Wu Bi entry methods are provided. Beware, however: Evil Microsoft is out to crush Chinese Star (they would rather everyone use their Chinese Windows), and there are compatibility problems between Chinese Star 2.0 or 2.5 and Office 97. The problem was solved in later 1997, however, when Chinese Star 2.97 was released (as was forward and backward compatibility with previous versions of Word and Chinese Star). Chinese Star 2.97 also includes a sweet dictionary function where you place the cursor on any word or phrase in English (or character or group of characters in Chinese), and it will automatically (lightning quickly), give you a translation. Only problem is the English to Chinese only has the Chinese character and not the pin yin. DOES ANYONE KNOW of a Chinese-English, English-Chinese dictionary software that does provide the pin yin as well? If so, please send me a note.

CHINESE STAR FAQ's:

WHY IS MY ENTIRE PAGE LUAN MA (A MESS): You probably didn't activate Chinese Star. Make sure it is turned on and the menu bar is on the screen.

WHY DO I STILL GET LUAN MA (A MESS) WHEN I TYPE CERTAIN CHARACTERS? This puzzled me for a long time, until my colleague showed me the solution: deactivate the "automatic spelling check" function under "tools" in Microsoft. Problem solved.

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